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Molecular machines consist of either a single protein or a macromolecularcomplex composed of protein and RNA molecules. Just like their macroscopiccounterparts, each of these nano-machines has an engine that "transduces" inputenergy into an output form which is then utilized by its coupling to atransmission system for appropriate operations. The theory of heat engines,pioneered by Carnot, rests on the second law of equilibrium thermodynamics.However, the engines of molecular machines, operate under isothermal conditionsfar from thermodynamic equilibrium. Moreover, one of the possible mechanisms ofenergy transduction, popularized by Feynman and called Brownian ratchet, doesnot even have any macroscopic counterpart. But, {\it molecular machine is notsynonymous with Brownian ratchet}; a large number of molecular machinesactually execute a noisy power stroke, rather than operating as Brownianratchet. The man-machine analogy, a topic of intense philosophical debate inwhich many leading philosophers like Aristotle and Descartes participated, wasextended to similar analogies at the cellular and subcellular levels after theinvention of optical microscope. The idea of molecular machine, pioneered byMarcelo Malpighi, has been pursued vigorously in the last fifty years. It hasbecome a well established topic of current interdisciplinary research asevident from the publication of a very influential paper by Alberts towards theend of the twentieth century. Here we give a non-technical overview of thestrategies for (a) stochastic modeling of mechano-chemical kinetic processes,and (b) model selection based on statistical inference drawn from analysis ofexperimental data. It is written for non-experts and from a broad perspective,showing overlapping concepts from several different branches of physics andfrom other areas of science and technology.

Machines of life: catalogue, stochastic process modeling, probabilistic reverse engineering and the PIs- from Aristotle to Alberts